With the advent of the low cost disposable syringe for human injections, the danger of cross-contamination for patients through faulty sterilization of syringes and needles has virtually been eliminated. Today one needle and one syringe is used one time for one patient. The peace of mind afforded to the patient and professional medical personnel is matched by that of the hospital administration responsible in the past for assuring proper sterilization after use and before the next use.
The advantages of disposable syringes and needles are offset by some existing problems, however. The greatest problem is disposal of the used syringe with the assurance that no one can come in contact with the used device nor reuse either the syringe or needle. In the past this has been accomplished by legal restraints against reuse and requiring the destruction of both the needle and the syringe after use.
The most common approach in the past has been for the medical professional to carry a box of some type into which the used needle and syringe are deposited after manually breaking each. Breakage is usually accomplished by replacing the protective sheath on the needle and by bending the sheath and needle against any available hard surface until the needle breaks. The sheath and broken needle are then removed and deposited in the makeshift box. Next the tip of the syringe is pressed against the same hard surface until it breaks. This method is slow and cumbersome and always runs the risk of the medical professional being jabbed by the needle tip or the broken end. A real danger of infection exists. Where an injection therapist must make hundreds of injections on a single shift, the risk of a possible slip in the destruction step is too great to be allowed.